January Reading List; “New Habits” (Patreon)

As I continue to look critically at my creative practice in the ongoing Archive Highlight Series, I’m riding the wave of introspection with some reading to inform my general practice.

“The Creative Habit”

Twyla Tharp

While the title seems dangerously close to “New Year’s Resolutions,” in truth this reading is long overdue, since I was assigned it in 2013. 9 years later, after hearing a few collaborators mention it lately, I’m ready to finish my homework. Last year was a big one for me, and I’m proud of what I managed to accomplish - it was also a highwater mark for workload, and so I’m shopping for some better ways to approach what I do.

RELATED READING

“Neither the pandemic nor age can keep choreographer Twyla Tharp from her work”

Fresh Air, 2021. Terry Gross

This was an interesting and fairly quick chat - in particular, I was interested in what Tharp said (and didn’t say) about her time choreographing dance in public, and the ways expectations shift when you move work onto a stage.

“Steal Like An Artist"

Austin Kleon

If you’re looking for a little creative kick to start working again, or surmount frustration, I really do recommend Kleon’s quick, nifty little book “Steal Like An Artist.” He’s by no means the first to say these things (which is in part the point, really), and a decade later his ideas are so mainstream that they can feel a bit hokey to hear out loud, but I still find he is refreshingly direct, grounded and approachable. It’s a book that gave me a great deal of permission as a young man, and I recommend it whenever I meet young artists just starting out.

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Thanks for supporting some of my best habits (and inadvertently, a few of my bad ones),

Yannick Trapman-O’Brien